Summary
Forgotten your fairy tales? Then let this game refresh your memory
The Good
At the end of 1980, a small company called
Sierra On-Line made games for the entire family to enjoy. These included
Apple Cider Spider and various clones of popular arcade games. Later on, they also did a couple of adventure games such as
Mystery House,
Mission: Asteroid, and
Time Zone. Unfortunately, none of these adventures included a central character who could move around and interact with people. But all of this changed when they were approached by IBM and they were asked to design a game that could show off the capabilities of the latest computer, the PC Junior. The result was
King's Quest, a game that could actually display graphics and allowed the user to interact with the environment.
Two versions of KQ were actually produced. You see, one version had you booting straight from a 5.25-inch floppy drive, and displayed 4-color CGA graphics, and it was the version that forced you to save your progress on floppy disk. CGA cards were all the rage in the early 80's, but when EGA came out, a second version was released, capable of displaying 16 colors at once, and it allowed you to save your game on a hard drive. I remember playing the King's Quests out of order, completing
KQ6 first. After this, I wanted to play KQ1, but I was told that it did not work, because it happened to be the first version. After many years, I found out about the second version, which I downloaded from the internet, and was delighted that I could play it.
The first in a series of games to come has you playing Sir Graham, who is sent on a quest by King Edward the Benevolent to recover three treasures that were stolen from the castle by deception and stealth. Bring these treasures back, and Graham will inherit the throne. Your objective is not outlined immediately as you need to do a few things right at the start of the game.
I did not have the chance to play the first version, so I can't comment on that. The first time I played the second version, I noticed how colorful that the backgrounds were, despite their blocky appearance. Sure, people that only started gaming and had a chance to play this game expected 3-D graphics and surround sound. What these people don't realize, however, was that
King's Quest was “state-of-the-art”, because before KQ, people just had to put up with many adventure games that were text-only, and KQ managed to do what the other games couldn't.
King's Quest has you walking around the woods, but you can go in other people's homes. I enjoyed walking around the woods until I ended up in the same place. But there is a risk of walking around on your own. My mother told me not to go out alone or something would happen to me. For example, I might stumble into the wrong place and fall down into something, or someone might come out from nowhere and kill me. And this is what happens in the game. There is a way to avoid this in the game.
The fact is someone MAY come out and kill you – but not in a violent way. In fact,
Roberta Williams, the creator of
King's Quest, chose to make a non-violent adventure game, and this promise was delivered in later KQ games. In the game, there are alternate solutions to puzzles, but these solutions are violent. You will sacrifice some points if you end up using them.
Another thing that I like about the game is that it reminds you of your favorite fairy tales, such as
The Three Billy Goats Gruff,
Jack and the Beanstalk, and
Hansel & Gretel. You can relive what happens in these stories, except that you are a different character, other than the character portrayed in them.
Both versions of KQ, the boot version and the hard-disk version, uses the PC speaker for sound, as sound cards weren't introduced around its time. Also not introduced was the mouse designed for IBMs, so users have to put up using the keyboard to enter commands in. Users of Tandy computers are a different story. You see, they might not have use of a mouse, but they have a much better speaker that can play more beeps simultaneously.
Greensleeves, the song used for the game's theme, sounds excellent.
Although I played the DOS version of
King's Quest, I also played the Apple ][ version, which is about the same as the boot version. This is the version that does not have text in boxes that appear in the middle of the screen, but in a large black area down the bottom. I enjoyed watching how the Apple version loads each screen. Different parts are colored in one-by-one, so it takes roughly five seconds before you gain control, and not immediately like the DOS version.
The Bad
King's Quest has a couple of design flaws, and you notice one of them right away. The bridge that you have to cross to get to the castle is arch-shaped, so it's very easy to fall down into the moat inhabited by alligators if you do not cross the bridge at the right spot. This is pretty funny actually, as your quest may be finished before it even started. Another flaw in the design relates to climbing the beanstalk. Again, this is similar to the moat incident, where it is easy to fall down while you are trying to climb your way to the top. This does not matter if you are several meters off the ground, but when you are way up in the sky, it is a different story.
Some parts of the game are a bit illogical. For example, you have to deal with this witch in her gingerbread house. To check whether she is home, you simply knock on the door. If she's not in, the game will tell you that there is no answer. Well, when you open that door, you find out that she is indeed inside. Another part has you putting a giant to sleep. If you did this, the giant will no longer be a problem. But if you decide to leave the screen and then come back to it, you notice that he is already awake.
I could never forget the "guess-my-name" puzzle that plagued both versions of the game. In one scene, you are given a hint that tells you to think backwards, but when the time comes to enforce it, you try typing it backwards, but this does not seem to work. It is more complicated than this. I can imagine the number of users that contacted the Sierra hint line for the answer.
And when you are trying to perform an action when you are already dead, it says that all you can do is "Restore Game, Restart Game, or Take Inventory". I tried entering the latter command, only to find that it does not work.
The Bottom Line
King's Quest is a game for the whole family to enjoy. As well as letting you interact with characters and the environment, you can revisit your favorite fairy tales. There are alternate solutions, but these solutions are not the best. If you have played either of the two versions that I have mentioned, you will be happy to know that this is not a text-only game. If you think that this is the only KQ game that relies on fairy tales, then wait until you see
King's Quest II
